Vaccinations

KGVO reached out to Missoula City County Health Department’s Incident Commander Cindy Farr for local reaction to the newest development with COVID 19 called the Omicron Variant.

COVID 19 cases continue to rise along with hospitalizations in Missoula County, according to Missoula City County Health Department Incident Commander Cindy Farr.

The Delta Variant of COVID 19 has caused new case numbers to explode in the past few weeks in Missoula County, resulting in a new daily record set over the weekend.

Although the Missoula City County Health Department did not have any direct contact with MCPS, Hellgate Elementary and Target Range School districts to provide counsel on the DPHHS emergency ruling on masks this week, Health Officer D’Shane Barnett spoke to KGVO News about the subject on Thursday.

It’s a brand new school year at the University of Montana after Monday night’s convocation ceremony following the first full day of classes.

Masks will be recommended but not required on the University of Montana campus for students and visitors as the fall semester gets underway later this month.

Missoula Mayor John Engen, County Commissioner Chair Josh Slotnick, OEM Director Adriane Beck and the new Health Officer of the Missoula City County Health Department, D’Shane Barnett held a Microsoft Teams press conference to discuss the current COVID 19 situation.

The Missoula City County Health Department is urging residents to ‘dust off their masks’ and start wearing them again, due to an alarming rise in new COVID 19 cases, the most since the spring.

The Missoula City County Health Department announced this week that they will be accepting appointments to make house calls for COVID 19 vaccinations.

Nick Holloway, Public Information Officer for the Missoula City County Health Department Vaccination Team spoke to KGVO News on Thursday to provide an update on vaccination numbers.